Man arrested on charges of stealing a car while awaiting trial on charges of stealing a car, after being convicted four times on charges of stealing a car

A Hyde Park man scheduled for trial next week on car-theft charges was arrested Saturday after a man who had had his car stolen noticed the vehicle being driven down a Hyde Park street and started following it, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Maurice Pridgett, 33, was arraigned yesterday in West Roxbury Municipal Court on a charge of receiving a stolen motor vehicle as a subsequent offense and two counts of receiving stolen property over $250 - police say they found stuff in the stolen car that was taken during two separate car break-ins, the DA's office reports.

Judge Debra Shopteese set bail in the amount of $3,500 and ordered Pridgett to wear a GPS device if he makes that, but declined a request from prosecutors to revoke his bail in the stolen-car case for which he's scheduled for trial on Tuesday, also in West Roxbury. In that case, he's also charged with possession of a class B substance with intent to distribute, the DA's office says, adding he is currently on probation for a 2013 stolen-car conviction in Roxbury, and has three other stolen-car convictions on his record from 2010 and 2011.

According to the DA's office, the most recent victim reported his Ford Escape stolen on March 31:

The victim contacted Boston Police again Saturday, this time to report that he had spotted his vehicle being driven on Wood Avenue and was following the vehicle as he spoke to a 911 dispatcher. Police pulled up alongside the stolen vehicle as it was stopped at the intersection of Wood Avenue and Cummins Highway and ordered the driver, later identified as Pridgett, to show his hands. He was taken into custody without incident.

The victim informed police that he could see no damage to the vehicle and that nothing appeared to be missing. There were, however, several items inside the vehicle that did not belong to the vehicleâ€™s owner, prosecutors said, including a black nylon bag that had been reported stolen during an April 2 car break-in in Mattapan. That victim was contacted by police and identified her bag and its contents, including her wallet, medication, and other items. A cell phone valued at $500 was missing from the bag, prosecutors said.

Officers also found another bag of which Pridgett claimed ownership. Among its contents was a GPS unit that had the address of a Cambridge woman programed as â€śhome,â€ť prosecutors said. When contacted by police, the woman said that the unit had been stolen from her vehicle during a previously unreported car break-in.

MGLC 266, Section 40. Whoever, having been convicted, upon indictment, of larceny or of being accessory to larceny before the fact, afterward commits a larceny or is accessory thereto before the fact, and is convicted thereof upon indictment, and whoever is convicted at the same sitting of the court, as principal or accessory before the fact, of three distinct larcenies, shall be adjudged a common and notorious thief, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than twenty years or in jail for not more than two and one half years.

Not sure if this guy was ever indicted (Grand Jury) and convicted of larceny but they should go for the indictment this time. I once had a similar defendant who had over 100 arrests and at least one prior indictment and conviction for larceny. On the next larceny, we indicted for larceny and the "Common and Notorious Thief" charge above. When faced with the possibility of 20 years, he immediately pled guilty and took 8. Effective law but rarely used.